Pretoria - June Steenkamp stole glances at photographs of a
bloodied crime scene as a police ballistics analyst revealed in the North
Gauteng High Court on Wednesday his version of the last moments of her daughter
Reeva Steenkamp.

"She was in a defensive position," Christian
Mangena testified, as Oscar Pistorius, who had been dating Steenkamp for a few
months before he shot her, sat bent with his head in his hands.

June Steenkamp quickly looked away after each glance at the
screen next to her, as Mangena took the court through his grim findings.

Shot in hip

He had just testified that, according to bullet holes A and
B on the door through which Pistorius shot Steenkamp, the first bullet broke her
hip and caused her to fall, while the second shot ricocheted.

"She was standing in front of the door, facing the
door," Mangena said.

The ricocheted bullet caused an injury to her back. "Bullet
B missed her, hit the tiles, and the fragments from the bullet hit her on the
back."

Mangena was able to establish this by lining up the wounds
in Steenkamp's body with the bullet holes in the door. The distance between the
heel and Steenkamp's hip wound was 93cm, and the height of the first bullet
hole in the door 93.5cm.

The effect of the Black Talon expanding bullet caused her to
fall onto a magazine rack in the toilet cubicle.

"By then she was in a seated position with her back
towards the wall," said Mangena.

Defensive position

He demonstrated the defensive position by bending over and
crossing his arms over his chest and head.

"Now how do we determine that?" said Mangena,
standing during his testimony.

She had an entrance and exit wound on her arm, with body
tissue from her right arm transferred to the black vest she was wearing.

Bullet fragments damaged her vest, indicating her right arm
was lifted up and was in front of the chest.

She had a wound to her left hand from when a bullet
penetrated her head, said Mangena.

He demonstrated to the court that according to his findings,
she would have had both hands over her head, with the left and right hand
crossing on top of the head.

That bullet broke into two fragments.

One was removed during the post mortem on her body, and the
other left her body to become the one that hit the wall.

"After this wound was inflicted, My Lady she dropped
immediately," said Mangena.

From the seated position, she would have dropped to the
right hand side of the toilet cubicle with the rest of her body on the magazine
rack.

Ammunition broke up inside body

The Black Talon ammunition used in the shooting broke up
inside Steenkamp's body, the court heard.

"With this type of ammunition, My Lady, you get maximum
wounding...It opens up if it hits the target," Mangena said to questions
by prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

Nel asked Mangena to explain what he meant by target, saying
the bullets had not broken up when they penetrated the toilet door.

"A human being," Mangena said.

"It creates six 'talons'. These talons are sharp and
cut through the organs. If it hits a bone it breaks into fragments."

Mangena said unlike full metal jacket ammunition, Black
Talon ammunition did not pass through a human body as it broke up and lost all
its energy.

He said the "most likely" position Pistorius was
in when he fired the shots was on his stumps.

He explained the safety mechanism of the Glock 27 pistol
used in the shooting. It had no thumb safety mechanism, but a "trigger
safety".

"When you pull the trigger you have to pull it in the
centre where the trigger safety is."

If the trigger was pulled lower down, or up, the safety
would not be released and the firing pin would not move.

Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering
Steenkamp saying he thought there was in an intruder in the house and when he
realised he had shot her, he broke down the door with a cricket bat to free
her.

She died on the scene.

Pistorius also faces charges under the Firearms Act for the
alleged discharge of firearms at a restaurant and out of the sunroof of a car.

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